Dying sea cucumber

[mermaiden]

Help needed please!

I came across this thread in a web search. (However I had to remove the link to the post on your forum here, in order to make this post.) It describes my question & situation pretty exactly.

I have a sea cucumber which is probably dying. I've only had it a few days. I have since been advised that (unlike what the fish store told me) it is likely to clobber my tank pretty good if it dies. 50 gallon tank.

The cucumber is a pink/yellow cucumber "pentaca anceps"
(and this used to be his picture but it made me remove it.)

However, this is how it looked this morning:
(Well that's just great. I had to remove the photo of THAT too because I can't post links or images until I get 20 posts.)

Tonight, all that.... cornsilk looking stuff, whatever it is.... has fallen off. I siphoned it out of the tank.

Is it poisonous? As in, if I were to have touched a little bit of that... It hurt a bit, and I poured some vinegar on it, just in case.

I'm pretty sure I'll have to yank him before I go to bed tonight. I can't afford for my tank to junk up now. I just got it back to being in pretty darned good shape again. This is a bad, bad sign isn't it? Wnat what IS that stuff?

[mermaiden]

On a better note, I finally came across some info that answers some of my questions I couldn't find before posting.

"If bothered by hermits, fish or any other animal it shares its aquarium with it may eject its viscera as a survival mechanism and kill off some of the fish and invertebrates it shares it’s aquarium with."

Damselfish were probably picking at him. I don't think he's necessarily dying, though who knows. He is still fanning his feeding fronds. Still glad for any tips or thoughts, though.

[sks4613]

host the pics at imageshack then post the link till you get your twenty posts. Would love to see. Is he still alive?

[Jadinop]

Filter feeding cucumbers tend to do poorly in captivity and it's not uncommon for them to die rather quickly even without being bothered.

The sandsifting cucumbers like the tiger tail have a much better track record and will be a more beneficial member of the cleanup crew. They do an amazing job of keeping the sandbed clean. Tiger tails will even reproduce in our tanks, mine has split 5 or 6 times already.